The True Face of an Elite
"Are you feeling alright? Your body temperature shot up to forty-three degrees. We took emergency measures, but there will be aftereffects, so don't move just yet."
"Who are you...?"
"I'm the security team leader. Don't worry. You're back in reality."
The security team leader said with a smile.
With a soft rustle, the bag of ice slid off my forehead.
My entire body was soaking wet, as if they had been continuously pouring water over me.
"You made it back safe and sound. Well done. Good work."
The security team leader patted my shoulder.
I'm back.
I lifted my head and looked outside the isolation room.
A long streak of fresh blood was smeared across the floor.
The security team leader looked down at the kid clinging to me and spoke.
"Saving an A-class Player is no small feat. You'll receive a fairly handsome reward. You can look forward to it."
An A-class Player?
I stared at the child burying his face in my chest, rubbing snot all over me.
He looked barely ten years old.
A boy with a remarkably pretty face, unlike the typical children of Maetan.
And he was an A-class Player?
If so...
"Kang Yeolchan?"
"Yeeeesss! I'm Ka-a-ang Yeolcha-a-an...! *Hic*, I thought you weren't going to make it, Hyeong-nim...!"
The boy claiming to be Kang Yeolchan wailed even louder, his heart breaking.
That muscular giant was actually this little kid?
I did think his messaging style sounded a bit childish, but...
"Surprised? Not many people know his real appearance."
The security team leader patted Kang Yeolchan's head as he spoke.
"Hey! Look here! Our goblin friend is back!"
"Aigoo, thank goodness! You did great!"
The field workers gathered in front of the isolation room.
It seemed they had all escaped safely.
"We'll call it a day here. Since our guide, the A-class Player, is in this state, we should head back for now."
"W-Wait a minute!"
"What is it?"
"I brought some items back with me."
Even if we were leaving, I had to get my reward first.
"That's right! He cracked that guy's safe!"
The field workers who had dived into the Internet with me shouted.
"I'm telling you, he opened a military-grade safe!"
"I don't know much about it, but there must be something important inside."
"...Check it."
At the security team leader's command, a guard checked my Neck-Hub.
"What's in there?"
"Uh... well..."
The guard looked between me and the security team leader with trembling eyes.
"I asked what's in there."
"SexyJennifer_PerfectBody_Custom3.3_0821_Final_RealFinal_v3.vlend."
Huh?
"There's more. Taeri_InnocentGlamourv_0611_RealRealFinal_v7.vlend..., Kangjun_GovernmentServantv_Bound_Modified.vlend, MungchiF_SunBear_Hibernationv_Requested.vlend..."
The guard's mouth rattled off a list of custom avatar names that very clearly revealed someone's... unique tastes.
It was the package Hee-cheol had entrusted to me.
"Wait, Kangjun is the name of a ready-made avatar in Intra-Maetan."
"Mungchi is also a famous furry su... Ah, never mind."
A few people murmured, recognizing the familiar names.
The security team leader asked.
"Is that really data you retrieved from the Internet?"
"Uh... Ah! My apologies! The file creation date is this morning."
"Right? No, wait. If it was this morning... that's before you even connected to the Internet?"
The security team leader's eyes shook as he stared at me.
Stop... don't look at me with those eyes...!
"Ahem, cough. Who told you to pry into someone's private affairs? Just look at the data brought back from the Internet."
"Well... there's nothing."
"What?"
"Excluding system files, no specific data was recovered."
The field workers who had dived with me stared at me with blank, dumbfounded expressions.
No, I really got it... The recovery notification window even popped up...
"Don't be disheartened. Sometimes corrupted data gets recovered like that. Just think of it as bad luck. You'll still be rewarded for your performance today anyway."
The security team leader forcibly pried Kang Yeolchan off me.
"As for the illegally modified avatars... well... I'll turn a blind eye for now... But a sun bear... hmm..."
Led by the security team leader dragging Yeolchan away, everyone slowly began to back away from me.
No.
It's a misunderstanding.
A misunderstanding, I say...!
"Junior!"
"You're back!!"
The Longsword Goblin and Handaxe Goblin repeatedly squatted and stood up in front of me.
I followed suit, moving my knees in sync with them.
"I'm back, seniors!"
"You rascal, I knew you'd make it back safe!"
"Aigoo, those crazy bastards. You were just working hard, and they went and sent you on a field mission...!"
"Are you hurt anywhere? Your head's alright, right?"
The seniors patted my head.
Of course, they could only see a smooth, bald green goblin head.
"I'm perfectly fine. In fact, they gave me yesterday off without even docking my annual leave, so I got plenty of rest."
"Hey, they said your temperature went up to forty-three degrees. Normally, that would scramble your brain... *Gasp*!"
It was at that moment.
A black shadow sliced through the air.
Reflexively, I rolled backward.
By the time I got to my feet, the Longsword Goblin had already been split vertically and collapsed to the ground.
"*Screeech!*"
The Handaxe Goblin let out a screech and tried to take a combat stance, but the black shadow flashed past him.
A moment later, the halved upper body of the goblin slid off the clean cut and fell to the ground.
In an instant, both of my senior goblins were dead.
"I've been searching for you in the tutorial server for two days."
Beyond the corpses of my two seniors, a man wrapped entirely in black clothes appeared.
A dark aura billowed menacingly from the greatsword that had sliced the goblins. What was it called again? Some kind of blade.
"I've finally found you. Dagger Goblin."
To a Player, a goblin's conversation sounded like nothing more than a series of high-pitched screeches.
"Do you have any idea how much humiliation I've suffered because of you? My membership was cut in half, they're talking about stripping my B-Grade, and my sponsors pulled out, calling me a Player who can't even beat a goblin!"
"I will fight you once more and prove my skills!!"
Instead of answering, I repeatedly squatted and stood up.
Pshhh!
A black aura erupted from the B-class Player's body.
As the dark energy touched my body, a heavy fatigue, like having run a marathon, seeped into my entire being.
Agility has been decreased.
But that wasn't a big problem.
"Here I come, goblin. Don't disappoint me!"
The B-class Player closed the distance in an instant.
I prepared to Roll, waiting for the perfect moment to counter.
"I've seen that move a dozen times!"
The B-class Player took another step in.
An off-beat consecutive attack followed.
I raised my dagger and blocked his strike.
With a normal goblin's strength, blocking should have caused me to drop my weapon...
Which was actually perfect. If I lost my weapon to his consecutive attacks and collapsed, he would be satisfied.
But.
"What?!"
Clang!
With a sharp metallic ring, a black arc sliced through the air.
The B-class Player's weapon, the Dark-Whatever Blade, flew out of his hand and stabbed into the ground.
The one who had lost their weapon wasn't me, but the B-class Player.
"How can a goblin have this much strength...?"
Ah.
I had forgotten.
Strong Arm (A): The wearer's physical strength is significantly increased.
I was still wearing the earrings I had received from Kang Yeolchan.
The B-class Player clutched his trembling arm, staring at me with eyes full of terror.
What should I do now?
I was supposed to let him win.
Just as I thought about collapsing right then and there, a notification window popped up and blocked my vision.
Administrator Summon: Moving to Office Server, Meeting Room 2.
My vision blinked for a brief second, and instead of the Goblin's Forest filled with ancient trees, a bleak meeting room unfolded before my eyes.
"Welcome, Employee Yoon."
The B-class Player was gone. Instead, Manager Han, my boss who oversaw the Customer Satisfaction Team's NPCs, sat across the table.
"Were you in the middle of work? Sorry for the sudden summon."
"Not at all."
It's not my fault this time, right?
I was just about to let him win, but Manager Han was the one who suddenly called me.
...It should be fine, right?
"Is that so? Well, I thought it'd be best to deliver good news as quickly as possible."
Manager Han slid an envelope toward me.
"Take a look."
As I picked up the envelope, text floated into view.
◈ Sender: In Sayeong, Director of Player Management, HR Department
◈ Recipient: Yoon Juhyuk, Employee of Customer Satisfaction Team
"I heard you assisted an A-class Player during your field mission. The HR department recognized your contribution and issued a performance bonus."
"Thank you very much!!!"
Since I couldn't bow, I repeatedly squatted and stood up instead.
"I'm sorry it's not more. What you did is truly priceless. However, corporate regulations limit the quarterly performance bonus for employees to a maximum of two million..."
"No, not at all! This is more than enough!"
Two million points was nearly 150% of my monthly salary.
I wouldn't have to worry about food expenses for a while.
"Nonsense. But there's no need to be disappointed. More will be coming in besides what the company is paying."
"Pardon?"
"The guild of the A-class Player, Kang Yeolchan, wants to reward you on a guild level. They've formally requested a meeting with you."
Guilds were organizations formed by Players.
While there were quite a few solo Players, the vast majority belonged to a guild.
"An A-class Player is an asset of immeasurable value. Since you saved someone like that, well, the reward should be quite substantial."
What was Kang Yeolchan's guild again?
It had a fresh, green sort of name...
"Am I raising your expectations too much? But considering Kang Yeolchan's guild is the largest in terms of scale, you won't be disappointed... Oh, a message just came in. The tutorial server? Why are they waiting in a place like that?"
Manager Han tilted his head in confusion but smiled at me.
"They say they're waiting in the Goblin's Forest on the tutorial server. Go on. You can head straight home after you finish up there today."
"Yes, sir. Thank you."
I squatted and stood up once more, summoned the movement console, and selected the tutorial server.
"Hyeong! I missed you!"
The first thing that caught my eye after teleporting was a red, muscular chest.
Kang Yeolchan's Red Goblin avatar, back to its normal state, grabbed and hugged me tightly as soon as I materialized.
"I'm glad to see you're safe, Mr. Kang Yeolchan."
"Why are you being so formal?! Speak casually like you did back then! We're close now!! Just call me Yeolchan, or even Chan!!"
"That was an emergency, so..."
"Exactly! It was only in that emergency that I realized! Seeing you stand against the AI in a mere low-grade goblin avatar made me realize how wrong I was to chase after nothing but raw power. You defeated that bearded bastard and returned triumphantly without any power at all, while I, an A-class, did nothing but get protected..."
A tear glistened in the corner of Kang Yeolchan's eye.
He was actually tearing up.
Was he always like this?
In my memory, he was supposed to be a bit more boisterous and manly...
The image of the little boy crying and blowing his nose on my chest suddenly flashed through my mind, but since I had only ever seen him crying, the image of a boisterous, muscular man still lingered in my head.
"Kang Yeolchan."
"*Hic*."
At the sound of the voice from behind, Kang Yeolchan flinched in surprise and quickly straightened his posture.
I could only then face the person who had been hidden behind the massive frame of the Red Goblin.
Click-clack.
Even though we were standing on dirt, the sound of high heels seemed to echo in the air.
That was how perfectly suited she was for her office wear.
She had a neatly styled short haircut swept back softly, and a clean, sharp face.
"Nice to meet you. I am Yoo Hyeyeon, the Guild Leader of Sprout."